Leaving Australia
We’re a family of four who’ve just accepted an overseas work opportunity and are planning to relocate around Q3 this year. We’ll likely be away for 3–4 years and will become non-residents for Australian tax purposes during that time.
We’ve had mixed advice on what to do with our PPOR (Brisbane) and the tax implications, so I’m trying to sanity check our options.
We don’t have a firm plan post-assignment. My partner is Canadian, and there’s a reasonable chance we may end up settling there long term rather than returning to Australia.
From what I understand, if we keep the house and rent it out while we’re overseas, then later sell it as non-residents (if we don’t come back), we could be hit with significant CGT.
Because of that, I’m considering selling the property before we leave and investing the proceeds into a mix of ETFs and HISA/term deposits instead.
My understanding is that as non-residents, tax on shares (particularly capital gains) is minimal or nil in many cases, but I’m not 100% confident on that.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? Would selling the PPOR before becoming non-residents generally be the smarter move here, or are we overlooking something?
Appreciate any insights or experiences.